This is just trailing zeroes

2002 ! ( 1001 ! ) 2 \dfrac{2002!}{(1001!)^2}

How many trailing zeroes does the number above have?


The answer is 1.

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3 solutions

Efren Medallo
Jun 7, 2015

To find the trailing zeroes of each of the numbers, we use an iterative method of finding the total powers of five in each of the numbers.

We know that 2002 2002 < 5 5 5^{5} ,

so we get that the number of trailing zeroes of 2002 ! 2002! is

2002 5 + 2002 5 2 + 2002 5 3 + 2002 5 4 \left \lfloor \frac {2002}{5} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac {2002}{5^{2}} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac {2002}{5^3} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac {2002}{5^4} \right \rfloor

= 400 + 80 + 16 + 3 = 499 \large = 400 + 80 + 16 + 3 = 499

in a similar way, 1001 < 5 5 1001 <\ 5^{5} the number of trailing zeroes of 1001 ! 1001! is

1001 5 + 1001 5 2 + 1001 5 3 + 1001 5 4 \left \lfloor \frac {1001}{5} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac {1001}{5^{2}} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac {1001}{5^3} \right \rfloor + \left \lfloor \frac {1001}{5^4} \right \rfloor

= 200 + 40 + 8 + 1 = 249 \large = 200 + 40 + 8 + 1 = 249

Thus, the total number of trailing zeroes of the expression is 499 2 ( 249 ) = 1 499 - 2(249) = \large \boxed {1}

Moderator note:

Bonus question : Prove that the same expression is divisible by 7 and 11.

@challenge master:
The expression = ( 2002 1001 ) =\binom{2002}{1001}
1001 = 263 0 7 1001=2630_7
263 0 7 + 263 0 7 = 556 0 7 2630_7+2630_7=5560_7
There is one carry. By Kummer's theorem, highest power of 7 7 dividing the expression is 1 1 .
So the expression is divisible by 7.
The proof for 11 is similar.


展豪 張 - 5 years, 2 months ago

How about number of trailing zeroes in 7! / (4! * 3!) ?

using your formula we get:

7! = 1 trailing zero

4! = 0 trailing zeroes

3! = 0 trailing zeroes

if we do the sum, we get that number of trailing zeroes = 1 - 0 - 0 which equals 1

if we do the math manually, then: 7! = 5040 (1 trailing zero)

3! = 6 (0 trailing zeroes)

4! = 24 (0 trailing zeroes)

but if we divide 5040 / 6 * 24 we get 35, which has 0 trailing zeroes, but according to formula above it should have 1 (obviously it does not)

why does this not work?

Matúš Kováč - 4 years, 3 months ago
Kaushik Chandra
Oct 4, 2016

Refer wiki and use the formula to calculate numerator &denominator. U will get 499/249 as the square of denominator isn't included. APPLY LOGIC:if we square 10 its result has twice trailing 0 then LHS i.e 10^2=100. Same is the case with 100^2&1000^2. HENCE IT'S GENERAL THAT R.H.S HAS TWICE THE TRAILING ZEROES THAN THE SQUARE OF L.H.S now let's calculate 1001!^2 It gives 249×2=498.&after putting its value in the original fraction i.e499/498 we get the nearest integer=1. CHEERS! ☆

Ramiel To-ong
Dec 14, 2015

that will be 499/498 = 1

499-498=1 not 499/498

rajdeep das - 4 years, 11 months ago

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Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

SRIJAN Singh - 1 week, 3 days ago

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